Don’t ask me why I woke up thinking such a trivial matter–one that I was actually just going to ignore outright. But I started thinking of the cameo image that I posted on here after reading Beyond! and keyed into an era of comics that I particularly had an affinity to because that’s when I was really into comics as a younger lad. It was on this basis that I finally decided to find a place for this cameo in the Comprehensive Timeline.

I was unfamiliar with Coldblood and I was curious about how Dracula fit in on a “team member” level. Did he have a series I was unaware of where he was presented as an anit-hero?! Anyways, I looked stuff up, collected data and came to my conclusions as to when the forgotten trip to Battleworld happened for Darkhawk.

Taking a look at the Comprehensive Timeline I recalled a major time gap after–incidentally enough–Sleepwalker’s appearance in Darkhawk #20 which ties into Sleepwalker #17; both were printed in October 1992. Events eventually included the New Warriors “Darkling” storyline, Darkhawk’s stint on Doctor Strange’s Secret Defenders, the Darkhawk Annual #3, and the Avengers West Coast “Dominicus” story arc, before I connected it back up to Darkhawk’s series–about 7 months of “learning to be a hero” is how I kinda see this time for Darkhawk. With all that in mind I placed the Battleworld experience before all of the side trips previously mentioned. After partnering with Sleepwalker, perhaps this could be where the two rookie heroes continued their partnership and got whisked away for a quest that gets mentioned in the Beyond! miniseries.

The team brought together by the “Beyonder/Stranger” to meet the challenges set by the cosmic being on the artificial planet of Battleworld is composed of a group of characters who were active during the early 90s. Deathlok, Captain Marvel, Coldblood, Terror Inc, Sleepwalker, Dracula and Darkhawk. This team is eventually sent back to their own world and have their memories wiped due to Deathlok sacrificing himself to stay behind on the island.

Technically, Deathlok didn’t go “missing” after his own series ended in 1994. He still appeared in Secret Defenders in 1995 and even in Avengers Forever #12 in 1999 (cameo with many others including Darkhawk and Sleepwalker)… so it’s with a grain of salt that a goal of achieving some sort of rational continuity can make any sense. Don’t try! I do it for the sake of entertaining a plausible continuity to Darkhawk for entertainment purposes.

The reasons below are why I pick 1992 as the publishing “continuity marker” as the point when Darkhawk’s Beyond! appearance happens.

  • Darkhawk’s armor is shown as the “classic” design. He goes “2.0″ in 1994 so it has to be earlier.
  • Captain Marvel only changes her name in 1996 to Photon so this agrees with pre-1994.
  • Terror Inc. had a miniseries that ran during 1992-1993 which also agrees with the above.
  • Dracula returned in an Epic Comics miniseries in 1991 and then was a major plot mechanic in Nightstalkers that ran 1992-1994, confirming his return to Marvel U proper in agreement with the proposed “continuity marker”.
  • Coldblood, another cyborg with connections to Deathlok and Wildpack had a few appearances in Deathlok in 1991 and 1993. This makes him the least known on this group, but ties him directly to Deathlok (which to me still makes no sense to have him on the Beyond team since he never really made any particular mark in the early 90s comics… if ever).
  • Wonder Man had a series that ran between 1991-1994 which also coincides with the “marker”.

That’s my conclusion! If anyone has anything to add, feel free to drop notes in the comments.